Creating this storyboard allowed us to have an idea of how to plan our filming.
This also gave us something to stick to, so when we came to filming we knew exactly what shots to take so that we didn't miss any or take the wrong ones.
Wednesday 12 March 2014
Preliminary task storyboard
Creating this storyboard allowed us to have an idea of how to plan our filming.
This also gave us something to stick to, so when we came to filming we knew exactly what shots to take so that we didn't miss any or take the wrong ones.
Evaluation of media product
Link: http://www.slideshare.net/CharLilyMay/media-product-evaluation-32217945
Thursday 6 March 2014
The schedules for filming
This is the first schedule for our film, this shows the date we will be filming. Not many people have started filming yet, however, I think it is necessary to film early due to our lack of experience with a camera, therefore we can have time to test our the camera and work on our film shots.
This is the second schedule for our film. As you can see, we have change the time of our filming to earlier as the previous one was too dark and didn't show up on camera. We decided here we will be filming the alleyway scenes at school instead and we will be using a tripod and camera. We will be using a Canon camera and Sony Tripod as a Sony tripod is light to carry and the Canon camera we find easier to use than digital cameras.
Here, we realised that there is no way that we could film when it has just starting getting dark. Therefore we have moved our schedule to filming on this date instead. I also understood that another person should play the role of Anna instead of Cliona. Therefore, I chose my sister as she was the best choice, due to her fitting the age group and being easily accessible.
Here is also the weather report for this particular date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Zi1MNwJVs
Wednesday 5 March 2014
Permission of tracks
For our film I chose two soundtracks. One was Muse - Super Massive Black Hole (karaoke version) and the other was a track used in order to build suspense.
Here is the link to the Karaoke Muse song that we used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj-XfDAdqOM
Before I added this song to my film, I thought it would be best if I firstly asked for permission from the YouTuber who uploaded it.
Here you can see where I asked in the comments whether I could or couldn't use this song:
Here is the link for the track we used for our film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NL4hpgYw5g
Here you can see the comment I added to the YouTube where I asked if I could use their track:
Here is the link to the Karaoke Muse song that we used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj-XfDAdqOM
Before I added this song to my film, I thought it would be best if I firstly asked for permission from the YouTuber who uploaded it.
Here you can see where I asked in the comments whether I could or couldn't use this song:
Here is the link for the track we used for our film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NL4hpgYw5g
Here you can see the comment I added to the YouTube where I asked if I could use their track:
Saturday 1 March 2014
Editing the film
Editing the film took about 3 weeks to complete. The first thing I did was make all the shots we took shorter and further making them shorter by using the blade tool on final cut. It took a while, but I managed to put all of the shots into order so they all flowed together properly. However, whilst doing this I saw that there were gaps between each individual shot on final cut. Therefore, I researched how to get rid of them properly and found out that by right clicking on the mouse where the gap is it gives you the option to close the gaps.
After the gaps were closed I originally thought it would look good to put the titles over the graffiti wall, so it would look like the shots were actually on the wall. However, not having the equipment for this type of text made it difficult, therefore I used blade to cut out pieces of the shot of the graffiti wall and put titles in between them. So now instead we have an opening title in black and white showing the audience who produced the film which is the most important, then afterwards you get a shot of the graffiti wall, then back to the titles and etc. Though, I decided if we did this technique too much it would get boring for the audience to watch, and I wanted the opening scene to look fast paced in order to portray to the audience that this is a thriller that's action packed.
After a few shots of the opening title credits in black and white I overlapped the shot of the phone with a title that said who was starring in the movie. I wanted the title of the movie to stand out from the other titles from earlier, therefore I found a software called 3D movie, this allowed me to play around and create a title for our movie which is "The Run" I made a drop shadow and positioned the title so that it looked like it was leaning back. Once I finished creating the title, I opened it in final cut and got the shot where Anna Dylan is leaning against a wall. I added "cross dissolve" to all the text I used which meant it faded out before cutting into the next shot.
I decided that the opening sequence seemed boring without any other music playing. So I decided to use the song Muse - Supermassive Blackhole karaoke version. I got this link off of Youtube and inserted it into iTunes, then downloaded it into the opening sequence. I put the music at the start and edited it to fade out when the titles stop appearing and the voiceovers begin. From creating the questionnaire I found that the majority of people thought rock music was fitting to a Psychological thriller film, and as I enjoy listening to rock music already I didn't find it hard to chose a suitable song. I chose the song Supermassive Black Hole as it's fast paced which goes well with action theme within our movie. In the original version of the song, it includes singing which sounds like a whisper, this type of singing makes it sound like voices in someone's mind, furthermore portraying an element madness.
I next added a filter into the flashback shots to put them in black and white, this meant you can decipher the present day shots from the shots from the past. I also used the "fade in fade out" transition from the video effects in final cut. The fading in and out is meant to represent the audience entering her mind to see what she is seeing, I believe that this transition shows that well.
I did the voice overs for Anna Dylan, as the person who plays Anna Dylan is my sister, therefore we sound the same. For the voiceovers I used the voiceover recorder in Final Cut and used a blue snowball microphone. The problem with this microphone is that you had to speak loudly in order for it to hear you - but otherwise the voiceovers went well. In two of the shots where Robert Grayson speaking on the phone, you can hear the loud noise of the wind behind him. Therefore, to solve this, I deleted the sound track attached to the clip that had too loud wind, which got rid of the wind sound. However this means you get rid of the dialogue too. To solve this issue, I decided to get my dad who plays Richard Grayson to do a voiceover of this shot, although even though you were now able to hear him speak, it didn't sound natural. I copied some of the sound used in earlier frames and pasted it underneath my dads soundtrack, this meant that you could hear Richard Grayson speak due to the wind not being as loud, and it also sounded natural as I added in the sound of the wind blowing in the background of his voiceover.
Finally, my partner thought it would be a good idea to put music at the end of the opening scene to build suspense. Therefore, I went on YouTube to find a movie soundtrack for an action film. This is the one we decided to use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NL4hpgYw5g&list=RDoH1Ba7ry6wE This soundtrack was made for people to use for their films.
I got this soundtrack onto iTunes, and then I put it onto final cut. Once it was in final cut, I cropped it so it would be shorter. The first part when you hear the music will be when she first sees Robert Grayson. You first hear the music here to show the audience that she is in danger. The music fades out when they have the conversation in the car, and dramatically builds up as she grabs the diary and runs away. To make the film more dramatic, I fitted the soundtrack in so that it finished along with the movie. However, I wanted the very end note of the soundtrack to be a loud bang as the cut off point as it sounds dramatic. Therefore, I took a particular part of the soundtrack and edited it in so that it fit in with the ending.
After the gaps were closed I originally thought it would look good to put the titles over the graffiti wall, so it would look like the shots were actually on the wall. However, not having the equipment for this type of text made it difficult, therefore I used blade to cut out pieces of the shot of the graffiti wall and put titles in between them. So now instead we have an opening title in black and white showing the audience who produced the film which is the most important, then afterwards you get a shot of the graffiti wall, then back to the titles and etc. Though, I decided if we did this technique too much it would get boring for the audience to watch, and I wanted the opening scene to look fast paced in order to portray to the audience that this is a thriller that's action packed.
After a few shots of the opening title credits in black and white I overlapped the shot of the phone with a title that said who was starring in the movie. I wanted the title of the movie to stand out from the other titles from earlier, therefore I found a software called 3D movie, this allowed me to play around and create a title for our movie which is "The Run" I made a drop shadow and positioned the title so that it looked like it was leaning back. Once I finished creating the title, I opened it in final cut and got the shot where Anna Dylan is leaning against a wall. I added "cross dissolve" to all the text I used which meant it faded out before cutting into the next shot.
I decided that the opening sequence seemed boring without any other music playing. So I decided to use the song Muse - Supermassive Blackhole karaoke version. I got this link off of Youtube and inserted it into iTunes, then downloaded it into the opening sequence. I put the music at the start and edited it to fade out when the titles stop appearing and the voiceovers begin. From creating the questionnaire I found that the majority of people thought rock music was fitting to a Psychological thriller film, and as I enjoy listening to rock music already I didn't find it hard to chose a suitable song. I chose the song Supermassive Black Hole as it's fast paced which goes well with action theme within our movie. In the original version of the song, it includes singing which sounds like a whisper, this type of singing makes it sound like voices in someone's mind, furthermore portraying an element madness.
I next added a filter into the flashback shots to put them in black and white, this meant you can decipher the present day shots from the shots from the past. I also used the "fade in fade out" transition from the video effects in final cut. The fading in and out is meant to represent the audience entering her mind to see what she is seeing, I believe that this transition shows that well.
I did the voice overs for Anna Dylan, as the person who plays Anna Dylan is my sister, therefore we sound the same. For the voiceovers I used the voiceover recorder in Final Cut and used a blue snowball microphone. The problem with this microphone is that you had to speak loudly in order for it to hear you - but otherwise the voiceovers went well. In two of the shots where Robert Grayson speaking on the phone, you can hear the loud noise of the wind behind him. Therefore, to solve this, I deleted the sound track attached to the clip that had too loud wind, which got rid of the wind sound. However this means you get rid of the dialogue too. To solve this issue, I decided to get my dad who plays Richard Grayson to do a voiceover of this shot, although even though you were now able to hear him speak, it didn't sound natural. I copied some of the sound used in earlier frames and pasted it underneath my dads soundtrack, this meant that you could hear Richard Grayson speak due to the wind not being as loud, and it also sounded natural as I added in the sound of the wind blowing in the background of his voiceover.
Finally, my partner thought it would be a good idea to put music at the end of the opening scene to build suspense. Therefore, I went on YouTube to find a movie soundtrack for an action film. This is the one we decided to use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NL4hpgYw5g&list=RDoH1Ba7ry6wE This soundtrack was made for people to use for their films.
I got this soundtrack onto iTunes, and then I put it onto final cut. Once it was in final cut, I cropped it so it would be shorter. The first part when you hear the music will be when she first sees Robert Grayson. You first hear the music here to show the audience that she is in danger. The music fades out when they have the conversation in the car, and dramatically builds up as she grabs the diary and runs away. To make the film more dramatic, I fitted the soundtrack in so that it finished along with the movie. However, I wanted the very end note of the soundtrack to be a loud bang as the cut off point as it sounds dramatic. Therefore, I took a particular part of the soundtrack and edited it in so that it fit in with the ending.
Wednesday 26 February 2014
Tuesday 25 February 2014
All the shots i used listed in order
- medium shot
- close-up
- long-shot
- long-shot
- long-shot
- mid-shot
- close-up
- extreme close-up
- close-up
- mid-shot
- extreme close-up
- medium shot
- extreme close-up
- medium shot
- extreme close-up
- medium shot panning to long- shot
- extreme long-shot
- long-shot
- long-shot
- long-shot
- close-up from above angled downwards
- over shoulder shot angled downwards (shows he's above her, makes her look in danger)
- mid-shot to long shot panning as they walk round
- long-shot from behind
- long-shot
- low shot angled upwards (long-shot)
- over shoulder shot (mid shot) to show the other talking
- over shoulder shot (mid shot) to show the other characters reaction
- mid-shot (shows someone behind)
- medium shot over the shoulder of Robert Grayson
- high angled shot, angled downwards (long shot) shows her running away and setting
The Run - Opening scene
The final version of the video:
This link and video below is the final/finished version of our opening sequence:
The unfinished version of the video:
This video and link below is the unfinished version of our film.
There are two links as i thought it would be best to show how it was and then how it developed after, therefore you can see how it has improved. You can also see that the first link shows loud wind, and my second link shows that i managed to edit this out.
Institutions research
Eon productions which stands for Everything Or Nothing, is owned by MGM a major film company. This company is based in London Piccadilly, and also operates from Pinewood studios in the United Kingdom. This particular production company is well known for creating the James Bond series, with Danjaq. Due to the production company being most well known for the Bond series, they are more likely to produce action films rather than psychological thrillers. However, psychological thrillers include a lot of action which might appeal to them if they were to distribute our film.
Eon Productions and Dajaq productions produced a well known
movie together called Skyfall, a James Bond movie. This movie earned £620
million at the box office, and on opening weekend it got $80.6 million, doing
better than any other previous bond films. This movie made a massive $951
million worldwide, having a budget of $200,000,000 meant that Eon Productions and Dajaq was able
to produce a great movie.
However, Eon Productions isn’t as big as Century Fox,
therefore they could not produce their film alone, and had to use other people
to distribute their film such as: Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
There are six very well known film institutions, which
include: Warner Bros, Paramount studios, Song pictures, Walt Disney
pictures, Universal Pictures and
finally,20thCentury Fox. These six insititutons are very important as they
provide money for films to be made, therefore without them small film companies
wouldn’t be able to have enough money to make a decent film. There is an issue
with film insitituions funding a film, which is that they are likely to want to
have complete control over the movie.
It was formed by three brothers and was one of the first
ever production companies to make films with dialogue in. Warner Bros are good
as they have created a very wide range of movies, from Harry Potter to Slumdog
Millionaire. This institution is known for creating movies with a high budget,
in order to make a lot of money. Their films are global and therefore they must
appeal to a wide range of audiences, which is why they create films of many
different genres such as:
Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows – Part 1 co-production with Heyday Films
Yogi Bear, co-production with Sunswept
Entertainment, De Line Pictures and Rhythm and Hues Studios
The Rite - distribution only, produced by
New Line Cinema and Tribeca Productions
Unknown- co-production with Dark Castle
Entertainment and Studio Babelsberg
Hall Pass - distribution only, produced
by New Line Cinema and Conundrum Entertainment
Red
Riding Hood co-production with Appian Way Productions
Sucker
Punch co-production with Legendary Pictures and Cruel and Unusual Films
Paramount Studios
Paramount Studios is another major production company who was founded in 1916. Paramount is one of the oldest film institutions. Steven Spielberg is a partner with Paramount and is well known due to being one of the leading film directors in Hollywood, and he has been a major contributor to Paramount’s success. Paramount is not only one of the biggest film institutions, but is also one of the biggest earning companies. They make a wide range of genres of films, similar to Warner Bros, such as: 'War of the Worlds', 'Mission Impossible', 'Shutter Island', 'Paranormal Activity'.
Paramount StudiosParamount Studios is another major production company who was founded in 1916. Paramount is one of the oldest film institutions. Steven Spielberg is a partner with Paramount and is well known due to being one of the leading film directors in Hollywood, and he has been a major contributor to Paramount’s success. Paramount is not only one of the biggest film institutions, but is also one of the biggest earning companies. They make a wide range of genres of films, similar to Warner Bros, such as: 'War of the Worlds', 'Mission Impossible', 'Shutter Island', 'Paranormal Activity'.
Sony Pictures Sony pictures is another well-known film institution , it
owns Columbia Pictures, which is a much more well known company which is why it
is so big. They also own Tristar Pictures which is less well known, but still
widely appreciated by many people. Due to people knowing them for their gaming
and electronic products, people trust them, and therefore even though they
aren’t as well known, many people still see their movies as they know of their
other products. For example, they also advertise their films through their
gaming products such as the ps4. Examples of films by Sony Pictures: Spiderman,
Hancock, The social network, Men in black.
Walt Disney Pictures is a media conglomerateone as it sells toys, creates books, makes films and also has its own theme park. It is also the most famous out of all
six, due to people knowing the production company as they watched their films
growing up. Walt Disney Pictures are commonly known for children/family movies
as animations and cartoons. However, this company have also started to make
different genres of films such as Pirates Of The Caribbean which is an action
movie,this allows them to reach out to a wider variety of audience such as
teenagers and adults. Some of the well known institutions they own are Pixar
and Marvel. Pixar and Marvel both concentrate on the quality of the film rather
than how many they make, making them as exciting as possible. This entices a
large audience as they wait for their next movie to come out as they know it
will only be as great as the last. Some films they have created: Finding Nemo,
Pirates Of The Carribean, Tangled, Thor, Bambi.
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox, is another well-known institution, although it started a later than other major film companies. This particular institution is owned by a news corporation, this helps them get publicity as their name is well known for other things as well. As they are owned by a news corporation, it means that they get their money largely from other projects instead of just films, similar to Sony. They also own a television channel the same as Disney, they have even started to make some of their shows into movies, for example The Simpsons Movie. They create movies of different genres like many other of the most well known institutions, for example: Star wars, Die hard, Titanic, X-Men, Marley And Me, Alien.
Finally, Universal Pictures which is another of the major 6 institutions. This particular company also runs different projects such as theme parks around America, which they use to promote their business, like Disney World does. Like many other film companies, they produce a large range of different genres, to appeal to a wider audience. Similar to Warner Bros and Paramount, they are also in it for the money by appealing to a large number of people. However, they are able to achieve bringing out very successful movies such as: Jaws, King Kong, Despicable me, Mamma Mia!.
The film institution that is most likely to produce our film
would be a film company that produces lots of different movies such as
Universal and Paramount. However, due to them being so big, they would want to
change parts of our storyline to make it more of a film that would sell.
Therefore, I would instead like Warner Bros to be the one to produce our film
as they produced Harry Potter which is one of my favourite films. I also know
from research from my own interest that the writer of the Harry Potter books,
J.K Rowling had a bit part in the production of the films, being able to choose
actors to play the characters and also being able to decide what scenes
should be included and what scenes shouldn’t.
Friday 14 February 2014
Looper opening scene
Looper opening scene clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8pApMdCTyE
This opening scene clip that I found was only 52 seconds long, however I have seen this whole film and thoroughly enjoyed it as it's complex and captivating. When it jumps from one shot to another you find yourself intrigued.
The first thing you see is the title sequence, the title sequence is in plain black and white, this simplicity differs from the complexity of the film as the film alone is hard to follow. "Endgame Entertainment Presents" is the first title that is written, and afterwards is the title "In association with DMG Entertainment" this is also in black and white, again very simplistic. I personally believe that this title sequence is short as this film is about time, and therefore the shot title sequence is used to show that time is also short, therefore, so is the titles.
As soon as you get the first shot, it is a close-up of a pocket watch. The person that is holding the pocket watch opens it to look at the time. This shot is thoroughly important as it immediately shows you the most important aspect of a film which is time, similar to ours which shows the phone which is one of the most important aspects of our film as it foreshadows something happening later on in the film. As soon as you see the pocket watch and as soon as the shot begins, you hear a ticking noise, this is diegetic sound that is used to add emphasis on certain noises to either add tension or to make the audience aware of something. In this case, it is to make the audience aware of the pocket watch. The pocket watch is the enigma code as you aren't quite sure what it is to do with the film, however you know it is important as it's the first shot you see.
The next shot after this is a medium shot of the characters face, here you see what the character looks like and also behind him, you can see part of the scenery which gives the audience an idea of where he is. He is also speaking words of a different language when you first see him, showing that he might be learning a new language for a reason that the audience are unsure of.
You then see a panning shot that moves so it's behind the character, this particular shot lets you stay in the moment of listening to the character while also being shown the location he is in. He then begins to get up and you see him pick up a gun, this is strange as you wouldn't expect someone to have a gun in an area like this as it's seems a peaceful place. The character stands up and aims his gun at the mat before him, this makes you realise that when he was looking at his pocket watch earlier that he must have been waiting for someone to turn up.
Suddenly, a man turns up with a bag over his head with his hands tied together. This mans face cannot be seen, which poses the question of "who is he?" however, we assume the man he has just killed was bad as the main character is likely to be a protagonist. As soon as the man with the bag over his head arrives, he screams as if he already knows what's going to happen. Next a gun is fired this is diegetic sound as they make the gunshot louder in order to scare he audience and add emphasis on the gun.
The main character then strolls up to the man and puts the gun down, the casual way in which this is done makes him seem as if he does this type of shooting all the time, as if it was part of his everyday routine.
Then the title of the film is shown which is "Looper". The title sequence was done by looping the two 'O's' together, this is clever as the film is called Looper and the O's are looped connecting them together. This is different from the first two titles which at the beginning are short representing time being short, however this one uses a loop on the O's which is similar to the infinity symbol which signifies something going on forever. The title sequence is again in black and white which is plain. Because the title is plain however it allows you to focus on the bold words which stand out to you, these being the only things that capture your attention.
This opening scene clip that I found was only 52 seconds long, however I have seen this whole film and thoroughly enjoyed it as it's complex and captivating. When it jumps from one shot to another you find yourself intrigued.
The first thing you see is the title sequence, the title sequence is in plain black and white, this simplicity differs from the complexity of the film as the film alone is hard to follow. "Endgame Entertainment Presents" is the first title that is written, and afterwards is the title "In association with DMG Entertainment" this is also in black and white, again very simplistic. I personally believe that this title sequence is short as this film is about time, and therefore the shot title sequence is used to show that time is also short, therefore, so is the titles.
As soon as you get the first shot, it is a close-up of a pocket watch. The person that is holding the pocket watch opens it to look at the time. This shot is thoroughly important as it immediately shows you the most important aspect of a film which is time, similar to ours which shows the phone which is one of the most important aspects of our film as it foreshadows something happening later on in the film. As soon as you see the pocket watch and as soon as the shot begins, you hear a ticking noise, this is diegetic sound that is used to add emphasis on certain noises to either add tension or to make the audience aware of something. In this case, it is to make the audience aware of the pocket watch. The pocket watch is the enigma code as you aren't quite sure what it is to do with the film, however you know it is important as it's the first shot you see.
The next shot after this is a medium shot of the characters face, here you see what the character looks like and also behind him, you can see part of the scenery which gives the audience an idea of where he is. He is also speaking words of a different language when you first see him, showing that he might be learning a new language for a reason that the audience are unsure of.
You then see a panning shot that moves so it's behind the character, this particular shot lets you stay in the moment of listening to the character while also being shown the location he is in. He then begins to get up and you see him pick up a gun, this is strange as you wouldn't expect someone to have a gun in an area like this as it's seems a peaceful place. The character stands up and aims his gun at the mat before him, this makes you realise that when he was looking at his pocket watch earlier that he must have been waiting for someone to turn up.
Suddenly, a man turns up with a bag over his head with his hands tied together. This mans face cannot be seen, which poses the question of "who is he?" however, we assume the man he has just killed was bad as the main character is likely to be a protagonist. As soon as the man with the bag over his head arrives, he screams as if he already knows what's going to happen. Next a gun is fired this is diegetic sound as they make the gunshot louder in order to scare he audience and add emphasis on the gun.
The main character then strolls up to the man and puts the gun down, the casual way in which this is done makes him seem as if he does this type of shooting all the time, as if it was part of his everyday routine.
Then the title of the film is shown which is "Looper". The title sequence was done by looping the two 'O's' together, this is clever as the film is called Looper and the O's are looped connecting them together. This is different from the first two titles which at the beginning are short representing time being short, however this one uses a loop on the O's which is similar to the infinity symbol which signifies something going on forever. The title sequence is again in black and white which is plain. Because the title is plain however it allows you to focus on the bold words which stand out to you, these being the only things that capture your attention.
Audience feedback to viewing our film
Video version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeY5kTKmwsU
The first time I chose to show our film was when I were still developing and editing our film, our film at this point was one minute long. I decided to show a group of students within our class the footage we had at this time in editing as we will still be able to make the changes and developments that they suggest. I thought this was a good idea as if I showed the film to the class once it was finished, they might give me criticism, and if they gave us criticism we might not be able to change it as it's too close to our deadline to develop the film.
Feedback:
1) Difference between shots
One student pointed out that it was hard to tell the difference between the flashback shots and the present day shots even with the voice overs in. Another mentioned that the flashbacks are too similar to the shots in the present as they are both running or pacing shots. To make them different I have decided to change some of the flashback shots to still, close-up shots. This way you can tell the difference between the present day and flashback shots as one will be still and the other will be action and pacing.
2) Starting shot
A student thought that our starting shot was confusing as that's the first thing you see. This was confusing to the audience as there was no scene setting at the beginning, therefore you don't know where she is, who she is, and what she looks like. This is an issue as if the audience are spending their time wondering these things they wont be focusing on the text she is sending as they are too busy wondering who she is. To change this we have decided to add a scene establishing shot of her walking to the graffiti wall and then taking our her phone, this then answers the question of where she is and what she looks like.
3) Voice over
I also haven't yet put on the voiceovers so it was hard for the audience to understand what was going on. Therefore, I decided to show them the script so that they could see what would be said in the voiceovers, therefore it would make more sense to them what's going on. To sort out this problem, we will properly write up the script and start recording the voiceovers earlier than we first decided.
The first time I chose to show our film was when I were still developing and editing our film, our film at this point was one minute long. I decided to show a group of students within our class the footage we had at this time in editing as we will still be able to make the changes and developments that they suggest. I thought this was a good idea as if I showed the film to the class once it was finished, they might give me criticism, and if they gave us criticism we might not be able to change it as it's too close to our deadline to develop the film.
Feedback:
1) Difference between shots
One student pointed out that it was hard to tell the difference between the flashback shots and the present day shots even with the voice overs in. Another mentioned that the flashbacks are too similar to the shots in the present as they are both running or pacing shots. To make them different I have decided to change some of the flashback shots to still, close-up shots. This way you can tell the difference between the present day and flashback shots as one will be still and the other will be action and pacing.
2) Starting shot
A student thought that our starting shot was confusing as that's the first thing you see. This was confusing to the audience as there was no scene setting at the beginning, therefore you don't know where she is, who she is, and what she looks like. This is an issue as if the audience are spending their time wondering these things they wont be focusing on the text she is sending as they are too busy wondering who she is. To change this we have decided to add a scene establishing shot of her walking to the graffiti wall and then taking our her phone, this then answers the question of where she is and what she looks like.
3) Voice over
I also haven't yet put on the voiceovers so it was hard for the audience to understand what was going on. Therefore, I decided to show them the script so that they could see what would be said in the voiceovers, therefore it would make more sense to them what's going on. To sort out this problem, we will properly write up the script and start recording the voiceovers earlier than we first decided.
Wednesday 12 February 2014
Location
Video version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NjkN5xTqhA
Locations
Locations
We will be filming the
opening scene in an alleyway, we are going to be filming it there because of
the atmosphere we want to create. We will be filming this opening scene in the
daylight, however we will be blocking out unnecessary light in editing in order
to make the opening scene more dull to create an atmosphere of sadness.
There is an alleyway which is
local to us which means we can easily go there to film the short scene. We didn’t
want to film somewhere it would be busy, therefore we chose this alleyway as
its not likely to be as occupied as most of the places we know. However, with
the graffiti and the park setting, with the houses you can see that this is
also a modern setting.
Most psychological thrillers
tend to be set in places that you can relate to, they do this in order to add
realism. Stereotypically, an alleyway is a scary place where people lurk who
are normally have a bad reputation. Therefore the character in our opening
scene is seen down an alleyway so the audience will perceive her as being a bad
person, even though later on, you find out that she’s a victim. This is
challenging conventions of a usual thriller genre as normally the person
dressed in black and in an alley would be the antagonist, not the protagonist.
We chose this particular
alleyway as it has trees and a wall with graffiti on it which means we can
shoot from different angles and it looks like the main character is somewhere
else. As our opening scene uses flashbacks, this means that we need different
locations as she is running away, therefore having a location that includes
many different parts to it means we don’t have to go around to different
locations in order to film, we have them all in the same place instead, making
this a dynamic location.
For example, this was used as
our alleyway:
And just round our corner we
had this area of park which we used to film a flashback of her running from the
mental institution:
These two different photos show the versatility of our location and how dynamic it is as it can be seen as one place, and also somewhere completely different.
We
think this location is good as the alleyway is dull in colour with lack of
leaves due to the time we filmed (winter) which gives it a darker effect,
adding to the mise-en-scene.
The
lighting is quite dull, even though this was filmed during the day, the
lighting being dull makes the audience feel as if this isn’t going to be a
happy, setting up the scene.
As
our opening scene is filmed during the day, it challenges conventions of
psychological thrillers as they would normally be filmed when its getting dark
to add the spooky feel to the mise-en-scene.
Monday 10 February 2014
Sunday 2 February 2014
Our target audience
For our research on psychological thrillers I looked at different clips from psychological thrillers and how they differ from one another, and why they have the particular rating they do. For my research I looked at clips from the cell and American Pyscho.
As our film is psychological thriller it usually includes a mental conflict usually within the main characters mind, therefore being more emotional which could attract a female audience. Psychological thrillers can cause the audience to be scared as some psychological thrillers include the element of horror which could attract a teenage or adult audience.
Due to the horror that occurs in psychological thrillers, the majority of psychological thrillers are an 18+. Psychological thrillers can also include violence which is another factor that would support why many psychological thrillers have a high age rating system.
The audience we are aiming to attract is a 15+ males and females who enjoy psychological thrillers. Our film has to be aimed at this age as it contains violence and a character who is mentally conflicted. However it will not have to be an 18+ or R rated movie as it will not contain death or any too disturbing scenes.
Furthermore, many people who watched our opening scene so far and who gave feedback in our questionnaires were aged around 15 - 18. Therefore we know that people around this age group would find our genre of movie appealing.
According to http://www.iankingsley.com/articles/007-psychological-thrillers.php who wrote a psychological thriller called 'sandman', the most important aspects of a psychological thriller are the personality of the main character and how they think. Therefore due to this, our target audience have to be of a high age range to understand what the protagonist (good guy) would be thinking, and why they act the way they do.
Themes involved in psychological thrillers can include:
As our film is psychological thriller it usually includes a mental conflict usually within the main characters mind, therefore being more emotional which could attract a female audience. Psychological thrillers can cause the audience to be scared as some psychological thrillers include the element of horror which could attract a teenage or adult audience.
Due to the horror that occurs in psychological thrillers, the majority of psychological thrillers are an 18+. Psychological thrillers can also include violence which is another factor that would support why many psychological thrillers have a high age rating system.
The audience we are aiming to attract is a 15+ males and females who enjoy psychological thrillers. Our film has to be aimed at this age as it contains violence and a character who is mentally conflicted. However it will not have to be an 18+ or R rated movie as it will not contain death or any too disturbing scenes.
Furthermore, many people who watched our opening scene so far and who gave feedback in our questionnaires were aged around 15 - 18. Therefore we know that people around this age group would find our genre of movie appealing.
According to http://www.iankingsley.com/articles/007-psychological-thrillers.php who wrote a psychological thriller called 'sandman', the most important aspects of a psychological thriller are the personality of the main character and how they think. Therefore due to this, our target audience have to be of a high age range to understand what the protagonist (good guy) would be thinking, and why they act the way they do.
Themes involved in psychological thrillers can include:
- love triangles causing the main character distress
- terrorism
- murder
- guilt and obsession
- criminals/convicts
- assassins
- or in our case, an innocent victim that is on the run
- strong violence
- drug use
- sexual nudity or references
- strong language
Friday 24 January 2014
Action and Horror films
Types of films
Horror:
The more recent horror movies are usually not based on books, however they do chose to use many of the creatures that have featured in early horror literature.
Horror films usually deal with the fear of the unknown, fears and nightmares. Although the majority of it is about the supernatural some crime thrillers that use serial killer can also be as being under the horror genre category.
The first horror film to ever be created is said to be "Le Manoir du Diable" or The House of the Devil" which was filmed by Georges Melies in 1896. This film was only 3 minutes long and was a silent film which is strange as most films tend to use diegetic and non diegetic sound to build tension.
Dracula released in February 1931 appeared three months before the end of hollywoods transition from silent to sound cinema according to http://magazine.uchicago.edu/07910/features/horror.shtml. However, many of the major horror movies originated from Germany, even most horror movies before the use of sound originated from Germany.
The target audience for
Action:
While action movies have largely featured in the movie production business, The action genre has generally been aimed at male audiences, however, many action films have started to add in a female heroine so that women would be more interested in wanting to see the movie.
The target audience for action movies ranges within a wide range of people, therefore making it popular. Although many people who watch action movies are male, the age ranges from 16-50. Most action films can be divided into two, one being aimed at male teenagers, and one being aimed at older males. For example "The Hunger Games" was mainly aimed at teenagers as they have younger actors, whereas films like "Red 2" are aimed at an older audience as bruce willis stars, and is in the age range of an older audience, therefore an older audience can relate to the movie better. Women stereotypically aren't as interested in action films as fist fights and car chase scenes don't appeal to them as much.
Action movies usually take place in countries like the Caribbean or Italy to try and get the audience away from reality as much as possible, so they can get away from their normal everyday lives as much as they can. This also creates interesting establishing shots and locations that you wouldn't get in London and other city areas. Audiences usually aren't concerned about how action films can be far fetched (have less realism) as it means they get to see better car chases and more interesting locations.
Wednesday 15 January 2014
The characters of our film
The character of this film was originally going to be Cliona (my partner in this movie), however we decided against that as she needed to film as well. Therefore we changed the character to be my sister Emma.
Emma playing the role of Anna Dylan:
Past experience: Has been involved in many plays in her past school such as crucible.
We chose to pick Emma for our film as we knew that she didn't mind getting her face in the film shots and we knew she would try her best in order to achieve the scenes we wanted to create.
We also knew that due to her past experience she would be good at acting, and she is confident doing so. Emma is also around the age range we wanted for our character, as our character is meant
to be a troubled teenager.
Emma is also my sister which means that it is convenient if we need to retake a shot because she lives with me.
Emma managed to use her facial expressions how we wanted her to when it came down to the close-ups and the medium shots, one of her best shots was a close up shot of her eyes which portrayed fear.
The character of our film is called Sharon Carr, this particular character was named after a real pyschopath who got put ion Broadmoor, the hospital for mentally unstable patients. I based my character on Sharon carr as Sharon Carr was the first youngest killer in Britian. However, the storyline written doesn't follow the one of her life. The real Sharon Carr murdered at the age of 12, therefore I will be using her age as the age something traumatic happened in her life.
Gordon playing the role of Richard Grayson:
I used my dad to play the role of the villain as the villain had to be in the age range of 30-50. Due to my dad being available to film, it was handy. My dad has been in a play at school when he was younger as well, however, he hadn't been in as big of a performance at school as my sister had.
My dad plays the character Richard Grayson who is based on a political figure called Thomas Newton from 1992. My dad was good at acting sinister and I thought he looked the part to play this particular character. To play the character my dad had to dress smartly due to his character working for the prime minister, and he had these clothes already from work. He also has a car which meant that he could use it whilst we filmed.
Emma playing the role of Anna Dylan:
Past experience: Has been involved in many plays in her past school such as crucible.
We chose to pick Emma for our film as we knew that she didn't mind getting her face in the film shots and we knew she would try her best in order to achieve the scenes we wanted to create.
We also knew that due to her past experience she would be good at acting, and she is confident doing so. Emma is also around the age range we wanted for our character, as our character is meant
to be a troubled teenager.
Emma is also my sister which means that it is convenient if we need to retake a shot because she lives with me.
Emma managed to use her facial expressions how we wanted her to when it came down to the close-ups and the medium shots, one of her best shots was a close up shot of her eyes which portrayed fear.
The character of our film is called Sharon Carr, this particular character was named after a real pyschopath who got put ion Broadmoor, the hospital for mentally unstable patients. I based my character on Sharon carr as Sharon Carr was the first youngest killer in Britian. However, the storyline written doesn't follow the one of her life. The real Sharon Carr murdered at the age of 12, therefore I will be using her age as the age something traumatic happened in her life.
Gordon playing the role of Richard Grayson:
I used my dad to play the role of the villain as the villain had to be in the age range of 30-50. Due to my dad being available to film, it was handy. My dad has been in a play at school when he was younger as well, however, he hadn't been in as big of a performance at school as my sister had.
My dad plays the character Richard Grayson who is based on a political figure called Thomas Newton from 1992. My dad was good at acting sinister and I thought he looked the part to play this particular character. To play the character my dad had to dress smartly due to his character working for the prime minister, and he had these clothes already from work. He also has a car which meant that he could use it whilst we filmed.
Film budgeting
Film
budgeting
Film
financing can be given from a private investor, sponsor, product placement,
film studio, entertainment company or out of pocket funds.
Tactics for
cutting costs:
Eliminate
night scenes: shooting at night requires expensive lighting therefore by
eliminating the night scenes you would save millions.
Avoid
filming in famous areas: For example filming on golden gate bridge would mean
you have to stop traffic, whereas shifting location to San Francisco Oakland
Bay Bridge for close-ups would save the money.
Filming car
chase scenes on a sunday morning: filming on a Sunday morning is when the
traffic is at its lightest and therefore you would have to stop much traffic in
order to film.
Use unknown
cast members instead of stars.
Use a non-union
crew
For
blockbuster movies high budgets are advertised to make people want to watch the
movie as they think it will be worth watching. In the Us film production
system, producers aren’t allowed to go over the initial budget for their film.
Unbreakable:
- Story rights and
Screenplay: £6,000,000
- Producers: £1,878,260
- Director (M. Night Shyamalan & Assistant): £5,081,749
- Cast: £ 35,068,388
- Bruce Willis: £20,000,000
- Samuel L. Jackson: £7,000,000
- Robin Wright Penn: £2,500,000
- Rest of Cast,
Casting, Stunts, & Travel: £5,568,388
·
Production costs: £26,214,709
- Visual effects: £1,000,000
- Music: £2,253,456
Total: £74,243,106
Dramatic films – timeline
1 year to secure rights and
funding
2 months of casting, scouting,
preparation
1 month readying actual
production logistics
2-5 weeks of production (stage
and location)
8-20 weeks of picture
editorial
8-20 weeks sound editorial and
scoring (usually starts after picture is “locked”)
1-2 weeks of picture
finish/conform/grade
1-2 weeks of audio mix
(re-recording mix)
1 week to finalize all
deliverables
If we were able to have more money to develop our film, I would spend it on buying a microphone for the sound, the updated version of final cut which would be final cut pro, a zip wire that I could attach the camera to in order to film the cast running. The microphone would be essential in order to get better sound, and final cut pro would also be needed as you could use it in order to put the film together properly and cut out the background noise.
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